Off-day to heal – hopefully not cool off

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The Cards enjoyed a day in the sun yesterday in Los Angeles before starting up their weekend series with the Dodgers tonight at Dodger Stadium.

The off-day should be very beneficial to the Redbirds, allowing Rick Ankiel one more day to rest that bum shoulder (although the bomb he hit out of Petco the other night suggested he was *just fine*). The bullpen will get to rest up so Tony won’t have any “he wasn’t available” excuses. And hopefully Adam Wainwright can get right in tonight’s start after a couple of rough outings.

It won’t be easy against the Dodgers, who at 25-21 are not far behind the Cardinals in the NL Wild Card “race” (I know, it’s early).

Here’s hoping though that the day off doesn’t cool down the bats. The Cards put up 11 on Wednesday night against San Diego, tying their game-high output for the season. They finally got clutch hits with runners in scoring position, even with the bases loaded a couple of times! Ryan Ludwick continues to be scorching hot, I think his spot on the lineup card is pretty secure for a while. Troy Glaus also continued to increase his RBI total and batting average.

At any rate, the Cardinals need to continue to put runs on the board. The 11 plated Wednesday night, and the previous 11 scored against San Francisco early in the season are the only two games in which the Cards have reached double-digit runs this season. That number needs to increase or the bullpen has to get better, one of them has to give!

A healthy Ankiel, a “I’ve got mind off of Chris Young, so I can hit” Albert Pujols, Ludwick, and Glaus makes for a very solid 2-3-4-5 punch in my book.

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Writing about the Cardinals and other loosely associated topics since 2008, I've grown tired of the April run-out only to disappoint Cardinal fans everywhere by mid-May. I do not believe in surrendering free outs.